Drawing on the evidence of anthropology as well as ancient literature and inscriptions, Gagarin examines the emergence of law in Greece from the 8th through the 6th centuries B.C., that is, from the oral culture of Homer and Hesiod to the written enactment of codes of law in most major cities. more...

The history of law can only begin after the written record of it commences; in the Middle East, that is a few centuries after the advent of writing itself in the fourth millennium BCE. That law is the oldest recorded, and is the foundation of the two great modern Western systems, the Common Law and the Civil Law. In sections covering the next three more...

Standing Trial' focuses on the relationship between the law and the concept of the person in modern Arab societies. It directly addresses the questions of continuities, transformations and ruptures of such notions. Law holds a central function in revealing social and historical dynamics and in being itself a tool of its implementation. The introduction... more...

This book argues that Aramaic scribes from antiquity drew upon a common legal tradition. It identifies the distinctive elements that form the core of this tradition and traces their antecedents within the cuneiform record. more...